oddly enough

Authorities in Eastern Oregon say a fleeing man tried to use a backstroke to get across the Columbia River but, exhausted, said he couldn’t swim and pleaded with officers to retrieve him. They did.

Morrow County Sheriff Ken Matlack told the East Oregonian that officers chased a stolen car Wednesday that went through two fences and a gate near Irrigon. It scraped up a steel pole that caused sparks and two brush fires.

After the car got stuck, the driver fled on foot and went into the Columbia.

Matlack said the man briefly tried to cross the river and then said he was tired and asked officers not to leave. They waded into chest-deep water to arrest him.

The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat newspaper reported that the white-tailed deer crashed through the windshield of a public bus being driven Tuesday evening in Johnstown, about 65 miles east of Pittsburgh.

The deer hopped around frantically near the driver before jumping on empty seats and running in circles in the aisle.

Authorities say the driver stopped the bus and opened the door, and the deer got off. Cambria County transportation spokesman Josh Yoder said it “just walked off the bus.”

The bus was carrying one passenger, who was seated in the back far from the deer. No injuries have been reported.

The bus has been taken to a maintenance facility for repairs.

There’s no word on what happened to the deer.

Pa. chief chided for using firetruck as prom limo

WEST NEWTON, Pa.

A volunteer fire chief’s decision to have his son and the boy’s date chauffeured to their high school prom in a firetruck has sparked a four-alarm controversy in their southwestern Pennsylvania borough.

West Newton Council passed a resolution condemning the use of the firetruck — and that’s about all they’re empowered to do because no laws were broken and the borough doesn’t control the fire company.

“Clearly, it’s not in the line of duty; it’s not a parade; it’s not a fire; it’s not helping with the community in that fashion. It’s something that was strictly personal,” borough solicitor Chuck Wade said. “They do great work, and I have to get that in, but what they did wasn’t something the borough was happy with.”

But West Newton Fire Chief Craig Sanner said the truck could have been diverted had there been a fire during the six-mile trip to his son’s high school April 26.

Associated Press

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